Festival Image Impact On Tourist's Satisfaction And Loyalty Based On Tourist's Experience

As a new tourism product, festival and special events have developed rapidly these years home and abroad. According to Annuals Development Report on Chinese Cultural Tourism, there were 1111 festivals held during 2014. Under this situation, festival planners and managers focus on how to attract much more potential visitors, increase the tourists' satisfaction and loyalty. Image and experience are important factors affecting tourists' behaviors. Shaping a positive image is of great significance to the development and prospective of festivals, because festival image plays a guidance role in potential tourists' decisions-making behaviors as well as it has an impact on their behaviors. In the era of experience economy, great changes have taken place in market situation as well as customs' needs. For tourists, traditional mass tourism products can't meet their demands, what they need is small mass, specific experience. Thus, tourism industry may develop fast by creating tourism experience that catering for tourists' demands. Due to image and experience play a significant role in tourism, one of Chinese top 10 famous festivals(Chrysanthemum Culture Festival of Kaifeng) is selected as the case to explore the interrelationship among festival image, festival experience, satisfaction and loyalty, aiming to get further understanding of the evaluation of tourists towards this festival. This study tries to deepen the understanding of the importance of festival image and festival experience, and also provide some suggestions for further operation management.This study surveys visitors of Chrysanthemum Culture Festival of Kaifeng, drawing on theoretical knowledge of psychology, management, marketing, consumer behavior and etc. Related concepts, theory development, research model and the questionnaires of festival image, festival experience, satisfaction and loyalty are proposed based on the literature review. This paper using the data obtained through questionnaires to reveal tourists' opinions about this festival. Statistical methods, such as frequency analysis, reliable analysis, validity analysis, factor analysis, correlation analysis and multi-regression analysis are used to analyze data. The results of factor analysis show that festival image contains 4 dimensions, namely social-communicate image, organize image, affective image and management image; festival experience contains 4 dimensions, namely sense experience, feel experience, act experience, think and relate experience. The results of regression analysis show that:(1)part of the dimensions of festival image have a positive significant relationship on festival experience;(2)part of the dimensions of festival image have a positive significant relationship on satisfaction;(3)part of the dimensions of festival image have a positive significant relationship on loyalty;(4)part of the dimensions of festival experience have a positive significant relationship on satisfaction;(5)part of the dimensions of festival experience have a positive significant relationship on loyalty;(6)satisfaction has a positive significant relationship on loyalty.Based on the results of the data analysis, conclusions are drawn as follows:(1) Tourists' evaluations of festival image are different, tourists think highly of social-communicate image, affective image and organize image, while tourists have a low opionion of manage image, especially traffic convience;(2)Tourists' evaluations of festival experience are different, act experience, sense experience and feel experience are easily perceived by tourists, while think and relate experience is not easily perceived by tourists;(3)Tourists' satisfaction and loyalty perception of Chrysanthemum Cultural Festival of Kaifeng are above the average level, tourists think highly of this festival;(4)There are correlationship between festival image, festival experience, satisfaction and loyalty; festival image has a significant positive impact on festival experience, satisfaction and loyalty.According to research conclusions, the author put forward suggestions to improve the development of festival from making marketing segment exactly, shaping positive festival image and design experience-oriented festival products. In particular,(1) Marketing through accurate market segmentation and positioning;(2)Shaping positive festival image by creating festive atmosphere, promoting in multi-channel, enrich cultural expressions, improve traffic problem, adopt a flexible pricing measures to create a good festival image;(3)Improving the festival experience effects by ensuring sense experience, creating a pleasant experience atmosphere, enhancing thinking and related experience, and stimulate act experience, and ultimately leading to the long-term development of this festival. Finally, the limitations and future research directions of this research has been described limitations mainly focused on two aspects of the survey site selection and investigation of the special nature of time; and can make a more comprehensive collection of samples during the follow-up research on different types of festival activities and the addition of qualitative methods to explore the development scale.are the effective measures should be taken to improve festival image as well as festival experience quality, ultimately reaching the sustainable development of festivals. In the end, the limitation of this study and further studies are discussed. The research limitation contains two aspects: the particularity of investigation and the concentration of survey time. And the future research contains three aspects: collect data during various periods, make a comparision among different festivals and take respondents' charactertistics into account.